He was more than a singer; he had that nameless
quality, which is not taught in any school and which marks a
personality; a tone of which nothing, before or since, has given me the
least idea."
The tenor, from the Comic Opera, went to the Ambigu Theatre, and thence
to the Varietes, where an attempt was being made to introduce lyric
works. Francois Delsarte's dramatic career did not, however, last more
than two years. During these various changes--I cannot give the exact
dates--this artist, on his way to glory, was forced to gain a living by
the least aristocratic of occupations. If he did not go so far as
Shakespeare in humility of profession (the English poet was a butcher's
boy), he strangely stooped from that native nobility--great
capacity,--which must yet have claimed, in his secret soul, its
imprescriptible rights.
If this was one more suffering, added to all the rest, it had its good
side. It was, perhaps, the source of the artist's never failing
kindness, of that gracious reception which he never hesitated to bestow
on anyone--from the Princess de Chimay and many other titled lords and
ladies, down to Mother Chorre, the neighboring milk-woman, whom he held,
he said, "in great esteem and friendship."
I return to his teaching. His lectures were given in Rue Lamartine and
Rue de la Pepiniere. There was always--aside from the school--an
audience made up of certain never failing followers and of a floating
population.
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